The
Balkans: broken but mendable
By WAYNE ANDERSON
Story ran on Tuesday, December 05 2000
Security was tight when we were in Zagreb, Croatia, on Nov. 24. The 15 nations
of the European Union were meeting there to decide what to do about the unrest
in the Balkans. The European Union had also invited the presidents of Yugoslavia,
Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania and Slovenia. Also represented were Montenegro,
the smaller of two republics that make up Yugoslavia, and Kosovo, the southern
province that is now being governed by the United Nations.
Arshad Husain, a child psychiatrist at the University of Missouri-Columbia,
and I were returning from running workshops in Kosovo and Bosnia for the International
Center for Psychosocial Trauma. In Tuzla, Bosnia, we had just conducted a five-day
workshop for 40 students and professionals on leadership for economic recovery.
They had found our American ideas of democratic leadership styles stimulating
and different from what existed in Bosnia.
As we drove into the airport, a combined force of soldiers and police met us.
They pulled our car to the side and fired questions at Victor, our driver,
who had just brought us in from Tuzla, Bosnia. He answered the queries in short
staccato bursts of Bosnian. After they had carefully perused our passports,
matched our faces to them and run a mirror on wheels under all sides of our
car, they let us pass.
Continuing hate and distrust
This meeting of the European Union worried many of our friends in Kosovo and
Bosnia. Part of the problem is that none of the other countries and provinces
in the Balkans trusts the Serbs. The people I talked to in Kosovo and Bosnia
were concerned that the European Union would insist on closer integration of
the former Yugoslavian provinces. The Kosovars and Bosnians feel that would
give entirely too much power to the Serbs.
Even the recent election of President Vojislav Kostunica in Yugoslavia and
the democratic defeat of Slobodan Milosevic have not reassured them. As one
of our informants said, "They’re just putting a new face on the
same old brain. Kostunica still thinks like a Serb."
At lunch one day before the summit, the education minister for the canton of
Tuzla said the Serbs, who control more than half of the former Bosnia, are
not being cooperative in carrying out the details of the Dayton Accord. The
Serbs’ attitude over the past five years has continued to be one of defiance
of the agreement. Five years after the Dayton Accord, many provisions are unfulfilled.
A major bone of contention is the failure to make it possible for refugees
to return home.
The Albanian Kosovars continue to seek vengeance on the Serbs for their brutality
during their recent conflict. At present, they resist letting any Serbs remain
in what they see as their territory. In response to some recent killings by
Albanian Kosovars of Serbs in the area bordering Kosovo, Serbs are asking for
weapons so that they can defend themselves.
Many in Croatia were also unhappy about the meeting. There were protests while
we were there by the Croatian veterans of the recent war who wanted an apology
and reparations for the damage done by the Serbs who caused the war.
